Available now in bookshops nationwide.
This has the lot…
Horses, a pony, a Labrador, a Jack Russell, a marmalade cat, a mother, baby, children, a teenager – and that’s only the first body count.
Snow, sleet, rain, and moments of sunshine.
Vodka, wine, coffee, tea; and chocolate brownies.
Psychotic hatred and determination, impatience, annoyance; romance and love.
Shotguns, rifles, Kalashnikovs, pistols, knives, torture, sedatives, morphine…
The story moves between England and Russia, but has tentacles in South Africa and Australia. Tangled threads wind through a mire of misleading events. Dan Forrester (ex-MI5, now with a private political analyst service) is called in by MI6 to handle the Russian crimes. PC Lucy Davies – on the cusp of joining CID – finds herself untangling the thread attached to multiple family murders in England, with or without the official okay. Somehow they realise their cases are linked. The story is as much Lucy’s as it is Dan’s – whose wife Jenny is the link between Russia and England.
Carver makes the story race on, so be well belted in, or you too will get stuck in the mire. This is my first reading of her work, but will not be the last, as I want more of Dan Forrester and hopefully of Lucy Davies, whose mind works in waves of colour as thoughts and memories come in and out of focus – a creative concept.
The pace is rapid, the story builds with suspicion and suspense, the resolution is satisfying.
Here’s an example:
Dan’s skin turned cold.
The old man had used the exact words Dan had spoken to Eketarina. Proving that he’d heard everything he and Eketarina had said. The old man knew Dan was a spy of some sort and was letting him know that he knew.
Eketarina: Edik Yesikov secretly sent two agents to your country last week.
Chills running yet? More chills and thrills within the full novel, I promise. Whether you’ve read C J Carter before or not, grab a copy at your local Booksellers NZ store.
Reviewed by Lynne McAnulty-Street
Tell Me a Lie
by C J Carter
Published by Zaffre Publishing
ISBN 9781785762918
booksellersnz.wordpress.com 